The future of self-driving cars is upon us, and the North Carolina General Assembly is, well, paving the way.

With a bipartisan and near-unanimous vote during the short session, our state legislature passed House Bill 469 into law, regulating the operation of fully autonomous vehicles — if and when they become available in our state. The governor signed the legislation on July 21.

According to the new law, a “fully autonomous vehicle” is a motor vehicle equipped with an automated driving system that does not require an occupant to perform any portion of the operational control of the vehicle. The law does not require an operator to be a licensed driver and allows operators as young as 12-years old. Driverless vehicles must still be covered by a motor vehicle liability policy, however, and the vehicle must be registered like other cars. HB469 makes the registered owner of a self-driving vehicle responsible for any moving violations of that vehicle.

In the course of setting state policy, HB469 also preempts cities and counties in the state from enacting any local laws regulating driverless cars.

Federal Law

Those federal laws may be coming soon in the form of the SELF DRIVE (“Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research In Vehicle Evolution”) Act, otherwise known as HR3388. The SELF DRIVE Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously.

The Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, a lobbying group that includes Uber, Ford and Volvo, released a statement praising the House for passing the act. “Self-driving vehicles offer an opportunity to significantly increase safety, improve transportation access for underserved communities, and transform how people, goods and services get from point A to B.”

According to the American Legislative Exchange Council, the SELF DRIVE Act would preempt state and local laws regarding the design, construction, or performance of autonomous vehicles and their component parts. It would direct the Secretary of Transportation to issue rules relating to safety certifications and establish cybersecurity standards for autonomous vehicles, among standards.

States will still be responsible for vehicle registration, insurance, driver education, law enforcement and other local issues, The Hill reports. Manufacturers will be required to include cybersecurity and privacy protections in their vehicles.

Fraud prevention laws recently enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly are guarding against identity theft and protecting millions in state revenue from scammers this tax season.

The state Department of Revenue (DOR) attributed an 18% uptick in cases of identified fraud and a 20% uptick in savings for the 2016-2017 Fiscal Year to the legislature’s tax compliance reforms that are in place to protect refunds again this year.

The series of new laws strengthen DOR’s audit strategy and technology resources while streamlining the process of identifying fraud through the state’s Government Data Analytics Center (GDAC), according to the agency.

“Tax season has never been any citizen’s favorite time of year,” said House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland), “but the North Carolina House has worked to make it less painful and a lot safer for our citizens.”

In 2015 the state General Assembly passed the North Carolina Competes Act, which requires businesses to submit their employees’ wage forms electronically to DOR by January 31st.

The state General Assembly and DOR also initiated a Pilot Audit Program in 2015 to augment the department’s advanced analytical modeling with resources previously unavailable to its staff.

In addition to increased revenues from the pilot compliance initiative, DOR also increased its operational and financial efficiency. The program improves the state’s capability to identify discrepancies in tax filings, improve audit selection and allocate resources effectively.

The pilot program provides DOR’s field staff with new insights, including embedded geographical search capabilities, historical data, and emerging trends.

“These safeguards maintain a fairer economy where every business and citizen is treated equally,” Moore said.

In 2017 the legislature passed Senate Bill 628 to strengthen transaction reporting requirements on debit and credit card processors and further reduce fraudulent income claims.

The state Department of Revenue pursued 43,000 cases of refund and identity theft fraud in the 2016-2017 fiscal year, saving taxpayers $57 million.

The agency pursued 23 cases of fraud against cash intensive businesses last year, saving taxpayers $1.2 million; 34 cases of fraud involving credit and debit card transactions for $1.6 million in savings; and 4,000 cases against home-based businesses in the 2016-17 fiscal year for $18.1 million in taxpayer savings.

Refunds may take a little longer under the fraud prevention process and filing early can further protect against identity theft. North Carolinians are encouraged to file their tax returns as soon as possible.

Background

This week marks the start of the 2018 tax filing season for the North Carolina Department of Revenue (DOR). All citizens and business are reminded that filing and paying 2017 taxes is a civic duty essential to delivering core services from the North Carolina state government .

North Carolina is one of sixteen states well-prepared for a financial recession according to an economic study released this month by researchers at Moody’s Analytics.

North Carolina has a record $1.5 billion savings reserve and has significantly improved its tax structure under a Republican-led state legislature.

Moody’s Analytics provides financial insights on capital markets and credit risk management for investors, strategic planners and policymakers, and “pioneered the concept of stress-testing the public sector.”

Its study applies potential economic recession scenarios, ranging from moderate to severe, to each state’s fiscal readiness for an inevitable downturn.

The analysis considers the ratio of each state’s savings reserves to its spending commitments and measures the predicted impact of a recession on tax revenues. State budget flexibility and planning are also factored into the comparisons.

It groups states into three categories of preparedness: sixteen states that “have the funds they need,” nineteen states that “have most of the funds they need,” and fifteen states that “have significantly less funds than they need.”

North Carolina ranked in the top-third of the Moody’s Analytics study as one of sixteen states that “have the funds they need.”

In April of 2017, Moody’s Investor Service also praised North Carolina’s House Bill 7 Savings Reserve Requirement as a “credit positive” commitment.

In years past, according to Moody’s, “North Carolina’s reserves have been below average.”

The October “stress test” study by Moody’s Analytics also notes “policymakers should be diligently implementing statutory reserve guidelines,” as North Carolina did with House Bill 7.

“The people of North Carolina can have confidence our state is well-prepared for emergencies thanks to a better budget process and smart savings by legislative leaders in Raleigh,” commented House Speaker Tim Moore. “I’m proud the North Carolina House has served families and businesses responsibly with careful planning of our state’s financial security.”

The ability of voting groups to form a recognized political party in North Carolina just got a whole lot easier. Senate Bill 656, the Electoral Freedom Act of 2017, lowers the threshold for establishing a recognized political party in a number of ways.

The bill also makes it easier for unaffiliated candidates to participate in the election process (an unaffiliated candidate is one who does not belong to any recognized political party). Membership in both of the major political parties has been declining as of late in North Carolina, and as of early September, voters who registered as “unaffiliated” outnumbered registered Republicans statewide for the first time ever.

“North Carolina has long had one of the stricter requirements for third-party candidates to get on the ballot,” said John Dinan, a political science professor at Wake Forest University. “This bill would make it easier for third-party candidates to qualify for the ballot and provide additional pathways for third parties to do so, and would also slightly ease the requirements for unaffiliated candidates to qualify for the ballot.”

SB656 originally passed in both the House and Senate on a mostly party-line votes earlier this month. Despite a gubernatorial veto last week, the bill is now law thanks to a bipartisan override on Tuesday. This is the tenth time the General Assembly has overriden a veto issued by Governor Cooper.

The leaders of the North Carolina’s Green Party, Constitution Party, and Libertarian Party were all quick to praise the ballot access provisions and were pleased that the governor’s veto of SB656 was overridden by the legislature. The “Electoral Freedom Act is the most significant ballot access bill passed by the legislature in decades,” they said in a joint statement. “It dramatically lowers the barriers for new political parties and independent candidates to get on the ballot, thus giving all North Carolinians more freedom of choice on election day.”

Political Parties

Until now, in order to qualify as a new political party in North Carolina, groups were required to get enough signatures on a petition that would equal at least 2 percent of the total vote for governor in the most recent election. In the 2016 election, for example, there were 4,769,640 ballots cast for governor; 2 percent of that total is equal to 95,393 required signatures.

The new law lowers that threshold to just .25 percent — so until the 2020 elections, only 11,924 signatures will be required to form a new political party. The petition must still be filed with the appropriate board of elections and the signatures must only be those of qualified registered voters. The new party would also have to get at least 200 signatures from registered voters from several congressional districts in the state; but the new law changes this to at least three districts instead of four.

There are benefits to being a legally recognized party. The most important, of course, is ballot access; that is, getting your candidate’s name on an election ballot (G.S. 163-165.5). Other benefits include getting access to a free copy of a statewide computerized voter registration file (G.S. 163-82.13), being allowed access to schools and public buildings for political meetings (G.S. 163-99), and having a party chair allowed to recommend precinct officials (G.S. 163-41).

SB656 allows candidates of an otherwise unrecognized party to get on the ballot if that party provides documentation that it appeared on the general election ballot in at least 35 states (70%) in the most recent presidential election. The Green Party of North Carolina would be the first to benefit from this provision, having nominated Jill Stein as their 2016 presidential candidate. Stein was a write-in candidate here and received more than 12,000 votes.

Unaffiliated Candidates

Unaffiliated candidates could already get their names printed on ballots by getting enough signatures on a petition, but the new law greatly improves ballot access. Ballot access requirements differ depending on the office a candidate is running for — whether it’s a city, county, district or a statewide office. Here are some changes:

For municipal offices, an unaffiliated candidate had been required to get signatures from 4 percent of the total number of registered voters in the city to appear on the ballot; now only 1.5 percent of voters is required;

Similarly, for a congressional seat, unaffiliated candidates were also required to get signatures from 4 percent of the total number of registered voters in the district to appear on the ballot. Now it’s just 1.5 percent of the total number of registered voters in the district;

To appear on the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate for statewide offices (e.g. U.S. Senator, Governor and other Council of State offices) a candidate was required to get signatures from 2 percent of the total vote for governor in the most recent election, plus 200 signatures from each of four congressional districts. The new law lowers that threshold to 1.5 percent of the vote for governor in the most recent election, with 200 signatures from just three congressional districts.

Primaries

SB656 also reforms the way winners are determined in the crowded field of a multi-candidate primary. When there are three or more candidates in a primary election, one may receive the highest number of votes but not get the majority of votes — in cases like this, the law says that a winner can only be declared when that candidate also achieves what is known as a substantial plurality. If no one candidate receives a substantial plurality, a second primary must be held.

“Substantial” had been defined at 40 percent; the new law says that a candidate receiving 30 percent of the vote can be declared the party’s nominee, helping to avoid a second round of voting in runoff primaries. As John Hood points out in the Carolina Journal, “Runoff primaries are expensive, low-turnout affairs. Most of the time, the top vote-getter the first time wins the second time.”

Judges

Judicial races will see some changes too. SB656 eliminates primary elections in 2018 for the Justices of the Supreme Court, judges of the Court of Appeals, judges of the superior courts, judges of the district courts — as well as candidates for district attorney. Judicial candidates will have their party affiliation shown on the ballot and winners for each race will be determined by a plurality of the vote; that is, the candidate getting the most votes wins. It was this part of SB656 that prompted the governor to issue a veto for the entire bill.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released wage data estimating North Carolina had the fourth fastest household income growth in the nation during 2016.

According to the Census Bureau study, North Carolina’s median household income was $50,584 in 2016 — up 4.5 percent from last year after adjusting for inflation.

North Carolina’s wage growth ranked substantially higher than the national average of 2.4 percent. The Census Bureau study also found the ‘Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia’ metropolitan area had the highest estimated median income growth out of the nation’s 25 most populous regions.

“North Carolina is leading the nation into a new economic era thanks to pro-growth policies,” said House Speaker Tim Moore. “In addition to wage gains that benefit our families and businesses, tax rates will continue to fall for North Carolinians.”

North Carolina’s unemployment is below the national average at 4.1 percent, its lowest point in 17 years. The national average is 4.4 percent.

The Republicans have enjoyed majorities in both bodies of the General Assembly for nearly seven years now, and pretty soon Phil Berger and Tim Moore will be asking for two more. This is an appropriate time to assess their performance on the economy. Even under the Perdue and Cooper governorships, policy outputs were shaped greatly by House and Senate Republicans, and they have been in the majority long enough that they must hold considerable responsibility for the state’s well-being.

Of course, the country as a whole has recovered, albeit painfully slowly, from the financial crisis and deep recession of 2008-09. We are bound to be better off than we were when the GOP captured the General Assembly in the 2010 elections. The key is to compare North Carolina to other states.

In this regard we’re doing pretty well, at least according to the most important economic indicators. In every year since 2011, with the exception of 2014, the state’s gross domestic product has increased at a rate higher than the country and the average of our Southeastern peers. For nearly the entire period we’ve been just outside the national top 10.

North Carolina’s economy has expanded steadily. Its average annual growth has been 1.9 percent, and it has never been below 1.4 percent or above 2.7 percent. We’ve avoided the boom-and-bust cycles that have afflicted states that bettered us at the beginning of the period — particularly energy producers like Texas, Wyoming, and the Dakotas — and that are beating us today, principally Western states that were embroiled in the recession for a lot longer. To be fair, the state’s rankings are similar to those achieved in the 1990s and early 2000s. But it’s important to note that under the Democrats in 2007-10 the state’s GDP growth was, when compared to national and regional benchmarks, considerably worse than it has been since.

The performance looks even better when we examine unemployment. In 2011, only four states had a larger proportion of their workforce out of a job. Today we are ranked 26th. Migration into the state is also strong, demonstrating the desirability of North Carolina as a place to live. From 2010 to 2016 we moved up one place, from 12th to 11th, in the ranking of states by net migration per 1,000 residents. In fact, we are growing more rapidly than before. In 2012 the state gained 5.6 residents per thousand inhabitants from the previous year; in 2016 the figure was 7.9.

Despite cries to the contrary, North Carolina hasn’t become materially more unequal, at least compared to other states. In 2010 the state was tied for 15th by income inequality as measured by its Gini coefficient, a statistic of dispersion regularly used to measure income distribution. We were in the same spot in 2016, still slightly below the national figure. The reason North Carolina’s rank can be so high yet remain under the benchmark is that most of the top states, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York — all of these are blue incidentally — exhibit extreme inequality.

Economic policy surely has much to do with this. Over the past seven years the state has undergone a process of deregulation and fiscal disciplining that has provided solid foundations for sustainable ascent through national rankings. We moved up four places in the Cato Institute’s “economic freedom” index between 2010 and 2014 — the most recent year for which data are available — although we are still just 24th. In the Mercatus Center’s ratings on fiscal and regulatory policy, North Carolina has improved dramatically on measures such as short- and long-term solvency. Over the period We have moved from 21st to second in the American Legislative Exchange Council’s “Economic Outlook Rank.”

Not that you would know from reading the papers and watching TV. Still, blaming the media for the lack of attention to the state’s strong economic performance over the past seven years only goes so far. Focus has frequently been deflected from the economy by legislators themselves. House Bill 2, in particular, hurt the GOP’s agenda. Most of the states’ voters were ambivalent about the bill, but as soon as they perceived it had negative economic consequences and the business community began to speak out against it, public support fell away.

Redistricting and the legislature’s efforts to control the judiciary, executive agencies, and appointments to commissions seem nakedly self-interested — Public Policy Polling, for example, has found voters believe actions such as cutting the Justice Department’s budget are blatantly partisan. Legislation exerting state control over matters such as municipal elections, infrastructure, and development policies confuse many who believe conservatives should support Barry Goldwater’s “Ladder of Liberty” and the devolution of policymaking to the local level.

This is a shame. North Carolina’s economy is strong and the Republicans in the General Assembly deserve the credit.